Civ 3 player curious about Rome Total War

[splunge the 2nd]

I've seen RTW on various "best game" lists and although Civ is the only RTS I've played am intrigued. I realize posting this on a total war forum, I'm not likely to get any negative reviews, but am curious on people's thoughts on the game, how accessible it is to a novice RTS pplayer and also whether kids can get into it as my 9 year old found civ a bit too hard.

 

[Lade]

Civ is not an RTS. It is a TBS. Rome total war combines the best aspects of those two genres together.

If you get RTW, make sure to get Barbarian Invasion expansion pack. It is both easier and harder.

By the way, rts = real time strategy, and tbs = turned based strategy.

 

[Dachs]

Splunge, I love your name. Don't love it, don't hate it, but I'm not being indecisive!

Personal experience: my little brother, who is currently aged 10, is playing Empire Total War right now on Easy and doing moderately well. Total War games are certainly possible for kids of that age, though don't expect great performance from them.

Opinion: Total War games don't involve the kind of micromanaging you'll find in Civilization, and you can get by quite easily without it. In certain respects, it's more difficult and you have more to do (obviously, the military sphere), but you don't need to screw with nearly as much crap in the cities and optimize stuff.

But then again, my little brother "got" Civ enough to be able to play moderately well on Chieftain. So maybe RTW and its ilk aren't right for you guys.

 

[LightSpectra]

Is a game that involves mass exterminations and throwing boulders at shrieking women really appropriate for kids under 13?

 

[Dachs]

About as appropriate as watching that sort of thing on TV, I expect.

 

[Atticus]

Even though RTW has tbs element, the core of the play is the real time battles. So if your kid likes more building and that kind of stuff, he doesn't necessarily like RTW.

I had first little motoric difficulties getting accustomed to the game, I had played only civ before it. So if your kid hasn't played anything like that before, it can be little challenging too.

The battles get harder as the game progresses, so it can be little frustrating.

And lastly, it's more centered around fighting, and it's attitude to violence might be something you wouldn't like to introduce to your kid.

Perhaps you should ask what your kid likes exactly likes in civ. Does he like more completing wonders or crushing his enemies? Or just to look the history of the world?

And also, you can download demo of it and try it out. Here's one, I don't know if there's different versions, but googling helps.

 

[splunge the 2nd]

Dachs, glad you got my screen name!
"mass exterminations and throwing boulders at shrieking women" ?!? Is that in RTW? In Civ you can raze cities and I have no problem with my kids playing, but I'd rather them not see kids screaming as their parents are killed by barbarians and their farms burned-just how graphic is the violence in RTW?

 

[Atticus]

When you capture city, you can exterminate population (big part of it). You'll see a picture of crucified people, and if I remember correctly, someone mourning for them. There's also sound of this extermination happening, which is quite brutal in my opinion.

But there's not much graphic violence, no blood, no kids, and the shrieking woman are just another military unit. In general, you should try it out yourself first. The game's general attitude is perhaps little nihilistic, and kids may not understand it.

 

[Traitorfish]

Is a game that involves mass exterminations and throwing boulders at shrieking women really appropriate for kids under 13?

It's in an appropriate historical context, so it's not quite as bad as you make it sound. You can argue that Grand Theft Auto makes kids go out and shoot each other, but you'd have a hard time arguing that Rome Total War encourages them to sack Carthage.
Not to say it's suitable, of course, that's up to the parent, but it's hardly SimHolocaust.

 

[LightSpectra]

It's moreso the theme of it that's a bit disconcerting than anything. When you cleanse a settlement's population, it's done so as if it weren't a big deal. Though I wouldn't expect a game to shove tearful sentiments down your throat like that, I also wouldn't want my child's first exposure to the concept of genocide to be that it's some sort of useful political tool to be done arbitrarily.

Eh, maybe I'm making a big deal out of nothing. Forget it.

 

[splunge the 2nd]

Thanks for the thoughtful consideration.
I let my 9 year old play some of the bloodless FPS games (Star Wars Battlefront, Mount and Blade) with me present to be a reality check.
I'll play the demo a bit and maybe pick up the title for myself with the kids as the occasional audience.
Alternatively, maybe we'll just not perform virtual ethnic cleansing and take our chanvces with uprisings.

 

[Maniacal]

Mount&Blade is an excellent choice

I rarely used the genocide options, it severely damages the economy of the city for several turns, but if a city (or its nation) was particularly difficult to me or rebellious I will make an example of them (not that this has any affect outside of that region).

Historically though, it was common for a town or city to be burned to the ground, its people killed or enslaved. The 2nd option is to enslave them (genocide being the 3rd and occupation the 1st), which removes part of that region's population and spreads it amongst your other cities.

The catapults are nothing you won't see worse of in movies, LotR 3 is more graphic. Also remember that the vanilla (no mods) Rome is not exactly historically accurate... Rome was NEVER divided into three families controlling different parts of the empire like it is portrayed ingame.

 

[splunge the 2nd]

Is the sacking option in the Barbarian expansion graphic/disturbing? Is it used much in the game?

 

[Maniacal]

Yes it is, it is also an option in Medieval 2.

And no it is not graphic or disturbing, at least I don't find it so. It shows a picture (or maybe a small animation) of a ruined city, iirc it is burning possibly with some corpses, it isn't very large and I generally just ignore it. I can't find where the hell the picture is in the game's files though, spent the last 20 minutes digging through them. A soundfile plays that has yelling and screaming and the sounds of fighting but again, its not very strong. The settlement on the campaign map will have a black plume of smoke for the rest of the turn (if exterminated).

The AI can sack and exterminate, though I don't know how often (it rarely exterminates) as I don't let my cities fall.

I think you should definitely buy it, play it and then decide if your kid(s) is/are ready for it yet.

 

[SS-Pz.Gren.1562]

I started playing TW when I was about 10 or 11 and back then I never found those scenes disturbing or overly violent at all

 

[cardgame]

It is an awesome game. Check out the Screenshots thread if you haven't already!

I agree with Prince, best course of action is to try it yourself and determine, yourself, if it's OK for your kid.

 

[Quinn_Inuit]

Ironically, some of the mods are probably less gruesome than the normal game, since they dispense with the head hurlers.

And I think it's an awesome game, but I'm biased. FWIW, it's pretty darn easy on "easy," even for a relatively difficult mod like mine.

 

[Maniacal]

Man when I looked at the title of this thread a minute ago I thought it was a porn spam.

 

[turfcat]

Any of the total war series are definitely worth trying out. The battle engine of the game is original compared to any other rts games. It lets you have more control of your standing army, choosing which units to stand on the defensive, which ones to shoot long range, which ones to charge, etc.
By biggest complaint with any of them has been the diplomacy (or lack there of). Factions break alliances constantly with no negative effects for doing so.
If I was to rate it among other games I've played, I'd give it a 7 on a scale of 1-10.
Right behind civilization and europa universallis.
Also if your into great graphics I would suggest Empire Total War or Medieval 2.
If Graphics doesn't matter that much to u, Rome's graphics are still very good.
I can personnally still have just much fun on Medieval 1.

 

[Murky]

I've seen RTW on various "best game" lists and although Civ is the only RTS I've played am intrigued. I realize posting this on a total war forum, I'm not likely to get any negative reviews, but am curious on people's thoughts on the game, how accessible it is to a novice RTS pplayer and also whether kids can get into it as my 9 year old found civ a bit too hard.

Its an easy game to learn but difficult to master. If I were buying for a 9yr old, probably wouldn't get them a war game unless they specifically asked for it. They'd be better off with a game like Braid or Mario Bros or some other kind of game that is simple and fun.

IMO, kids under 13 really don't need to be exposed to a lot of anti-social game play.